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Run the cloud with usThu, 28 Feb 2019 10:29:23 +0000en-US
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1 Why you should never try outsourcing DevOpshttps://www.stackmasters.eu/blog/never-try-outsourcing-devops/
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 08:51:58 +0000https://www.stackmasters.eu/?p=2780If you are running a business, there’s one resolution that we think you should keep in 2019. And that is simple: to steer well clear of outsourcing DevOps! Why? Let’s start with our firm conviction that you can’t outsource DevOps! Any practice toward this would make you an enemy against your own business. Let us […]

If you are running a business, there’s one resolution that we think you should keep in 2019. And that is simple: to steer well clear of outsourcing DevOps! Why? Let’s start with our firm conviction that you can’t outsource DevOps! Any practice toward this would make you an enemy against your own business.

Let us explain the reasons. They are, as we have previously said on this blog, all about simplicity.

DevOps is about culture more than IT

It may seem funny that we at Stackmasters, a company that also specializes in DevOps consulting and outsourcing, say that you should not outsource DevOps. Do we want to put ourselves out of business? In a word, no.

What we mean is that DevOps is more about a complete change of culture, rather than a simple way of working or operating. Yes, you can request help to improve processes, to set up important processes such as continuous delivery and automation. You can even implement new and extremely useful technologies like containers.

However, and this is a big one, if you really want to go forth the innovate by following the DevOps way, then you have to start at home. Yes, this change needs to come internallyin your business or company. Because yes we can help you set things up and give you the best advice and tools available. But, what we can’t do is help wield a sledgehammer to bring those silos crashing down if there is no internal collaboration.

DevOps is processes and tools, not marketing

In reality, we utilize the term DevOps for marketing purposes. This is because our real expertise is not in that field (marketing). Our skill and specialization is much more about implementing processes and tools. For us DevOps is all about the practices.

Yes, we can certainly assist to improve some cultural behaviors, but there is no magic solution we can sell you to do it. This is only possible with a close examination of two core elements in DevOps: processes and tools. Yes,we are repeating them because they are that important. But then there’s something else you must not forget. It has perhaps more significance. People. They require more than external help. We should probably add a team of psychologists to our company if we’re honest. Seriously!

Start with a clear vision and step by step execution

The real question you need to answer for your business is what objectives should we reach with the beginning of a DevOps project. It is true that cloud and automation brings a solid framework to support your business to operate and grow fast and reliably. But, it is also true that you and your core development team are the most suitable to address the needs of your customers.

In seeking to find a better way to manage your software release and service operations, you are essentially in a position to start the setup of a unified cloud management solution. You will have to plan for efficient cloud or on-premise infrastructure. Or hybrid of course. The right solution will depend on the requirements. Then, you extend to the applications to make sure you deploy and manage them with confidence.

Epilogue

So where does all this leave you? It’s pretty clear that you can consume the cloud with the help of a cloud consultant. And you can create very efficient DevOps practices with the help of a DevOps consultant.

Or you can go one better and combine cloud and automation with a managed service, such as our Stackmasters Managed Cloud. Which, by the way, is nothing like outsourcing DevOps. We work with you, not for you. To find out more about how we can help you to implement the best DevOps solution for your business, get in touch with us today. Forgive us for being slightly biased, but we urge you to go for the latter option. Why? Because what you’ll get is a customized, multi-cloud solution designed to grow with your business.

]]>Ready for a DevOps evolution? But first, simplify…https://www.stackmasters.eu/blog/ready-for-a-devops-evolution-but-first-simplify/
Mon, 05 Nov 2018 15:25:35 +0000https://www.stackmasters.eu/?p=2738If you want to know the secret to a comprehensive DevOps evolution it’s simple. Literally. Still waiting for the punchline? OK then, I’ll explain. It’s simplicity. For the road to automation mastery, and by that we mean a DevOps evolution, starts with simplification. Yes, kicking off a DevOps evolution by reducing complexity may surprise many […]

If you want to know the secret to a comprehensive DevOps evolution it’s simple. Literally.

Still waiting for the punchline? OK then, I’ll explain. It’s simplicity. For the road to automation mastery, and by that we mean a DevOps evolution, starts with simplification.

Yes, kicking off a DevOps evolution by reducing complexity may surprise many of you who may think of automation as a first step in DevOps. I mean isn’t it true that automation is a core pillar of the movement?

Well, technically yes it is. Very much at the core of a successful DevOps setup relies heavily on automation. But, and here’s the interesting part, the key automation practices which are typically attached to DevOps are not in the spotlight until your cloud journey passes some important stages.

Why? because a huge amount of careful preparation must take place before automation can be properly designed, out in place, and then implemented as part of any cloud management strategy.

DevOps evolution starts here

Before we begin, let’s have a quick look at the Five Stages of DevOps evolution as defined in the recent 2018 State of DevOps Report compiled by Puppet and Splunk.

Source: State of DevOps Report, 2018

The above essentially represent some “foundational practices” that highly evolved organizations adopt early on and continue to evolve as they progress through their individual journeys. The report is the result of research conducted over the last year, following a sever year track with over 30,000 technical professionals around the globe taking part.

Now, while the above diagram shows a quite linear or hierarchical progression, this is not always how things go. Some businesses for example, may kick off at Stage 4, without having been through any normalization, standardization and expansion first.

And what happens? They wonder why they are not successful. As the report point out, it’s usually “because they lack a foundation of collaboration and sharing across team boundaries. This sharing is a critical factor to helping to define the problems an organization faces and coming up with solutions that work for all teams.” All of this points to what we state about the fact that when you take care of the simple things first, the complicated stuff runs smoothly.

The research shows that DevOps evolution actually begins a long way before automation, so if you skip the early stages, then you are missing out on the learning that takes place
during these periods.

The early stages are also when teams establishing and succeeding at DevOps practices earn the trust of the business, which can mean more resources and permission to progress faster.

A matter of control

As previous State of DevOps Reports have shown, the use of version control for all production artifacts correlates highly with key IT performance metrics. Elements such as deployment frequency, lead time for changes, and mean time to recover. As mentioned in this year’s report, in 2017 the analysis showed that the use of continuous delivery practices — deployment automation, continuous integration and testing, and version control for all production artifacts — predicted lower levels of deployment pain, higher IT performance, and lower change failure rates.

Controlled innovation then, if you like, is the key. From a commercial point of view, there are plenty of benefits to standardization. Here are a few of the main ones:

But be flexible

All of the above are great. But there’s also the other side of the coin to factor in. That any mention of the word standardizing can sound scary. Many times there’s a fear attached to this word that it translates as “limitations”. In IT circles this fear is well founded. Because while we do want to follow some standard procedures, you also need to be able to make important changes.

Yes standardizing your tech stack does provides clear business benefits as we’ve seen. But, when you rigidly adhere to certain “standards”, you are risking putting a dampener on learning and innovation. These two words, as we all know, all the key to any successful DevOps evolution.

So what DevOps practices should you follow to make sure you do learn? As the State of DevOps report points out, “the key is to regularly revisit standards and build in exceptions for innovation and experimentation. We recommend standardizing with an eye to what is optimal for all applications, not just a few applications. Use proven technologies and reliable processes for what goes into production, and provide clear processes and guidelines for adding any new technology to enable product incubations, research and experimentation.”

So, yes, to go back to what we said in the beginning, you also need to think simply to ensure you set up your DevOps evolution policy in the best way for your business.

References: See here to get access to the full 2018 State of DevOps Report

]]>The importance of governance for cloud applicationshttps://www.stackmasters.eu/blog/governance-for-cloud-applications/
Tue, 18 Sep 2018 15:24:51 +0000https://www.stackmasters.eu/?p=2638How important is governance for cloud applications? The short and simple answer, in my humble opinion, is a lot. In fact, it can’t be emphasized enough. Governance is the act of policy establishment, continuous monitoring, and the separation of authorities and duties within a system. So, as a concept, it’s realized by identity and access […]

How important is governance for cloud applications? The short and simple answer, in my humble opinion, is a lot. In fact, it can’t be emphasized enough.

Governance is the act of policy establishment, continuous monitoring, and the separation of authorities and duties within a system. So, as a concept, it’s realized by identity and access management (IAM) services that are a cornerstone for any modern IT infrastructure or cloud application.

Cloud applications offer services to different users within the same platform. A property known as multi-tenancy, which is required for cloud applications. When cloud applications manage resources that belong to an organization or a team, you really want a governance model in place. Why? To regulate the access among the members of the organization on these resources, and how they are distributed and managed. It needs to be a key part of your overall cloud management strategy.

So how do we handle governance for cloud applications? Let me explain.

Governance for cloud applications our way

Here at Stackmasters, as a Python Developer, I get to design and implement a cloud application, which provides an API for cloud management. This software service automates recurrent routine tasks that occur in the management of a cloud environment. So things like the installation and configuration of an application stack (e.g. a web site) as well as whole workflows. Task automation, then, simplifies the cloud management for organizations and teams, and acts as a helping tool for cloud administrators and DevOps teams by allowing system changes through API calls in standard fashion.

Now, we want this API to be easily accessible from different clients – be it CLI’s or a front end client running on a browser, or just a shell. What do we need to achieve this accessibility? Simple, we need a service to authenticate the user and perform permission checking. At the same time, we need to keep usage statistics for different users.

For the implementation of this service, we use Role Based Access Control (RBAC) resource governance approach, which sets the ‘role’ as the basic authorization unit. We create roles by combining different permissions and we assign these roles to users or groups of users. Clever eh? Nope, just the right governance for cloud applications framework for us.

Find the right fit for your company

While there are many other resource governance methodologies and techniques, the above approach seems to be the right fit for our application. The reasons are simple, it is down to its simplicity and robustness. It is also logically close to the multi-tenant environments and governance models we have seen in many cloud technologies we use every day.

For example, OpenStack’s identity service: Keystone, which offers API authentication, service discovery and distributed multi-tenant authorization. This one is based on the idea that identification should be a separate, standalone and isolated service. Keystone’s architecture inspired me on designing our identity service. We have used some ideas, such as the way tenants are organized and used, acting as the base unit of ownership or the way user roles are applied to define the level of authorization rights.

Conclusion

The secret to governance for cloud applications is basically that there is no secret. It’s one of the central cogs in your system management in this modern age of digital transformation. It decides the policies you establish, the monitoring you will have in place, and separates authorities and duties within your system. Any modern IT infrastructure or cloud application worth its salt must ensure that they have the right governance in place. So, if you are not making it a priority already get on the case today!

]]>What is Cloud Management anyway?https://www.stackmasters.eu/blog/what-is-cloud-management/
Thu, 09 Aug 2018 09:20:17 +0000https://www.stackmasters.eu/?p=2616Cloud management. It’s a phrase we hear bandied about more and more these days as the great digital transformation and ‘age of automation’ continues to rip through industries of all shapes and sizes. But what exactly is cloud management? Isn’t it just the same as cloud computing? Well, yes and no, but mostly no – […]

Cloud management. It’s a phrase we hear bandied about more and more these days as the great digital transformation and ‘age of automation’ continues to rip through industries of all shapes and sizes.

But what exactly is cloud management? Isn’t it just the same as cloud computing? Well, yes and no, but mostly no – if you catch our drift.

How you manage your cloud is becoming the key to business success, whatever market or industry a business is involved in. Why? Put simply, it means that your IT infrastructure is more efficient, leaner, faster and adaptive to sudden changes. Both good and bad.

Cloud management: a definition of sorts

Once a user of cloud resources and services, you are in the position to consume computing power or storage space from a third party, i.e. a cloud provider. To put things in order, as well as to achieve higher efficiency, you need a way to manage the collection of those cloud resources. Not only that, but the data they maintain, as well as the series of applications executed within that cloud environment.

This calls for the concept we know as cloud management in the industry. And this can be delivered either as professional services, or based on a platform which is is backed by an automation toolkit.

Cloud management vs cloud computing

So what’s the difference between cloud management and cloud computing? Put simply, cloud computing is what books are for a library to cloud management. First, the multitude of cloud providers offer the resources and services from their various datacenters. This is so that by using cloud management, a company can tailor cloud environments for running their software for their users.

With that in mind, it’s clear that these two different concepts, cloud management on the one hand, can be complimentary to the other – cloud computing. The result is to gain streamlined operating processes, and a reduction in complexity.

What a good cloud management platform looks like

A cloud management platform should be able to offer self-service and transparency all the way for all cloud resources.

The other key characteristics of a sound cloud management solution are:

multi-cloud capabilities

broad network access

automation in as many repeatable tasks as it is possible to

cost reports and usage accounting

easy integration and transition of existing environments

Epilogue

At the end of the day, in the cloud management game what you are looking for is comfort. For a change, this much maligned word (aren’t we always being told to get out of our comfort zones?) is at the heart of what cloud management provides. How? Deeper automation for monitoring all the related aspects of operations and performance, combined with orchestrated IT management workflows.

These are merits that can give the user of a cloud management platform a really comfortable experience. And one which carries unique business values to maintain control and quickly respond to change.

]]>Join us for OpenStack’s 8th Birthday Celebrations!https://www.stackmasters.eu/blog/join-us-openstack-8th-birthday/
Tue, 17 Jul 2018 08:10:05 +0000https://www.stackmasters.eu/?p=2586It’s celebration time! OpenStack is turning 8 years old and if that doesn’t call for a grand get together of “Stackers” then we don’t know what does. Here at Stackmasters, as always, we will be inviting the OpenStack community in Greece to our shard office space at Starttech Ventures HQ in Athens to join in […]

It’s celebration time! OpenStack is turning 8 years old and if that doesn’t call for a grand get together of “Stackers” then we don’t know what does.

Here at Stackmasters, as always, we will be inviting the OpenStack community in Greece to our shard office space at Starttech Ventures HQ in Athens to join in the celebrations.

Here are the juicy details: all-comers are welcome to join us this Wednesday, July 18, from 19:00 – 21:00 at Starttech Ventures. There are still a number of open spots of the meetup, but they are going like hotcakes so RSVP here if you want to join the fun.

OpenStack: onwards and upwards

The Birthday meetup is an event we love to host each July. And it’s not just about celebrating the progress of the OpenStack project with those working with the technology, but to discuss best practices, tricks of the trade and a few zany stories that many of you often have.

Each year we share the latest news, trends and speculations of the OpenStack project with our local community members, as well as all its users. Additionally, we always welcome anyone interested in technology and the development of Open Infrastructure projects with open arms.

There are similar events organized by local OpenStack communities around the world in coordination with the OpenStack Foundation, so wherever you are you are sure to find one near you.

Athens OpenStack MeetUp Agenda

As is usually the case, it will be a laid-back affair. Here is the agenda of what we have in store for you:

18:45: Welcome and Introduction

19:00: 8 Years of OpenStack – Review by Thanassis Parathyras

19:45: Open discussion and call for future meetings

See you there!

As always, it will be our absolute pleasure to see those of you who have worked or want to get to know OpenStack better, as well as those who want to share the experiences you have with OpenStack and its greater community. A big shout out to the sponsors of the OpenStack Foundation, Stackmasters and Starttech Ventures.

]]>Software, Cloud and the digital transformationhttps://www.stackmasters.eu/blog/software-cloud-digital-transformation/
Thu, 28 Jun 2018 06:42:50 +0000https://www.stackmasters.eu/?p=2580To say we live in exciting times is an understatement. In the midst of a digital transformation, today we live in a world where you can do most of your everyday activities using your mobile phone. Whether it’s buying food or clothing, getting around with a taxi or chauffeur service or via plane, the solution […]

To say we live in exciting times is an understatement. In the midst of a digital transformation, today we live in a world where you can do most of your everyday activities using your mobile phone.

Whether it’s buying food or clothing, getting around with a taxi or chauffeur service or via plane, the solution is in the palm of your hand. And of course, communicating with your loved ones is easier then ever, with a multitude of ways to connect. The crazy thing is that these are just a few simple examples of how the digital world is there laid out in front of us.

Digital transformation driving business

Many of us are already working for companies who embrace the digital transformation. Which as a fact in itself clearly shows that there is an ecosystem of businesses built around software applications. That ecosystem consists of consumers and the providers of digital assets. While I’m pretty far for giving a solid definition in this post, what I want to say is that this environment is what we call the digital economy.

Established companies are changing product offerings to embrace the digital world, while new companies are innovating, offering electronic services for the digital transformation of the economy.

The digital economy is fast-growing due to its own nature of being based on software. Production and distribution of software is much easier when you compare it with other forms of manufacturing. One other reason for seeing that amount of growth is the lower entry burden for new businesses. At the end of the day, this makes the competition between businesses much harder.

Software is cloud, cloud is software

No, I’m not trying a bit of inception here. To rephrase my earlier sentence I think we live in a “software world” (rather than digital world). It is a world which we interact – most of the time – via our mobile devices which are connected to the Internet.

With that in mind though, I often hear and in turn tell others that we use the cloud to power the digital economy. In other words, the blooming of the digital economy is coupled with the cloud. There are many definitions or products in the industry for the cloud or around it. But I prefer to stick with the one provided by NIST as the baseline. It goes something like this:

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”

The core is automation

One of the key breakthroughs cloud technology has contributed to is the management of infrastructure and platform resources with the so called as-a-service way. That is self-service, ad-hoc, pay as you go, scale-fast properties which partly cover the core characteristics of a cloud offering along with multi-tenancy, detailed report usage and of course broad network access.

The cloud business model (aka as-a-service offering) is today utilized for several aspects of running a modern data center. From simple VM provisioning and data storage to sophisticated networking like load balancing and VPN connections. To enable the ad-hoc behavior, the as-a-service model implies every cloud is based on automation and automation is actually software-orchestrated procedures of software-enabled components (through APIs).

Cloud: it’s all about software

At the end of the day, we can reach the conclusion that the cloud is made of software to provide the resources and service for the software that the applications are made of to execute. In short, software is king! And this leaves you with one simple realization. By introducing or improving IT automation and DevOps practices within your company, you are getting more than simply an enabler for effectively using the cloud.

]]>How to hire the best in DevOpshttps://www.stackmasters.eu/blog/how-to-hire-the-best-in-devops/
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 06:34:53 +0000https://www.stackmasters.eu/?p=2567“You just can’t get the staff these days.” It’s a phrase we hear often enough in many industries. And nowhere is the search for a star employee more intricate and complex than in the world of DevOps. Whether you are a job seeker, or a manager struggling to keep up and understand current trends, there’s […]

“You just can’t get the staff these days.” It’s a phrase we hear often enough in many industries. And nowhere is the search for a star employee more intricate and complex than in the world of DevOps.

Whether you are a job seeker, or a manager struggling to keep up and understand current trends, there’s a lot to consider. The talent environment for DevOps is constantly evolving and shape-shifting. We should know, as we’ve spent a lot of time carefully looking for and bringing in new software engineers here at Stackmasters. Thankfully, there are some key rules to follow, and ones which we always try to follow.

Before we get to those juicy bits though, let’s take a quick look at the state of play.

DevOps talent culture: the state of play

Let’s face it, currently, hiring a good DevOps specialist is a mighty hard task. Why? Because DevOps has blossomed in such a way that new roles keep cropping up all the time. High quality professionals which are already in shortage, then, are in high demand. Companies are actually fighting over them. Why are they in demand so much? Because businesses need people who can deliver on what DevOps promises. Which is, in short, constantly experimenting, continuously iterating. And this at great speed, while also handling a tricky culture change.

Obviously the above means that it’s a good time to be a competent IT pro. The job market loves you right now. As long as you have the right mix of skills and experience that is. And there’s more good news. In our software and increasingly cloud-driven, automated world, this situation is not likely to change soon.

In a recent report from OpenSource.com, staffing firm Robert Half said in its 2018 salary guide for technology professionals, that it expects DevOps engineers to be one of the most in-demand roles among North American employers next year.

“There is an increased drive to capitalize on the agility and productivity benefits brought on by DevOps, and leaders are seeking the talent to drive these initiatives and execute on delivering the strategy,”

says John Reed, senior executive director for Robert Half Technology.

There’s no doubt that the DevOps jobs boom is real. According to figures from Robert Half Technology, avergae salaries for DevOps engineers are north of $100k per year (US-based figures, but numbers in western and central Europe are close or on a par). This is why many IT professionals are switching from other sectors of IT to gain the experience and skills necessary to land a choice DevOps position.

How to hire the best DevOps pros

It can be a minefield trying to seek out the talent you need. Because you don’t just need a top DevOps pro. You also need someone who fits your business in terms of personality and work ethic. Hiring has to be everyone’s responsibility. Because the very same top-down and bottom-up approaches to DevOps culture also exist for hiring. You’ll find significant value in both approaches. Here’s our take on OpenSource’s key rules to follow:

I know this really good DevOps guy…

Rule number one. Ask anyone involved in talent search and hiring, and they’ll tell you, referrals are your first port of call. You should consider them your bottom-up approach to hiring. If someone already in your organization recommends a friend or former colleague, this goes a long way. Not only will you save money on adverts and/or recruitment services, you are more then likely to get someone who fits to you company’s culture. Great minds think alike and all that. An additional, perhaps bonus, point here is that the referrer’s reputation is what pushes a candidate to the front of the line. The rapport between all parties matters more than the fact that the referrer is a part of the organization.

Decide on the background you want

This one maybe should be number one, we kind of jumped the gun a little. You need to do a proper due diligence on the strengths of your existing team. For example, you may have some top class software engineers but are lacking in infrastructure knowledge. Your aim should be to close these gaps in skills, not just hire a (expensive) superstar engineer that you don’t actually need. Get the guy or girl who will give you the most value in your environment.

Freelancer or permanent staffer

This one overlaps with the above point. There is the temptation to immediately start looking for a permanent full-time staffer. But think again. Is it really what you need? If you are an early-stage startup for example, can you: 1. afford a full-time top notch DevOps engineer, and 2. Are you at the stage where you will fully benefit from someone like that? Chances are, the answer to both questions is probably not. If you are building a brand spanking new DevOps environment, then your best course of action could be to try out an experienced contractor. This way, you’ll get the knowledge that an experienced hand can show your junior whizkid the ropes. Then as you grow you can add to your team later. Who knows, your contractor may be able to refer you someone from his network!

I need the dollar

Money. Yes it does make the world go round, and is important to consider when hiring IT talent in the DevOps field. Best advice? Be clear from the start about how much you want to, or can, pay. As a general rule if you are an early startup, you really want to be breaking even first BEFORE trying to land “rockstar” DevOps engineers on big bucks.

Forget about your awesome product or service

Try to leave your ego to the side. In many cases, ego can destroy a startup. In many ways. Letting it interfere with your recruitment is one of them. Yes, you may have an awesome product/service/company. But there’s always competition. Candidates have a lot of the buying power. It is no longer as simple as saying, “We are hiring” and the awe-some candidates come flowing in. You need to sell your op-portunities. Maintaining a reputation as a great place to work is also important.

A poor hiring process, such as interviewing without giving feedback, can contribute to bad rumors being spread across the industry. It takes only a few minutes to leave a sour review on Glassdoor.A smooth process is a successful one“Let’s get every single person in the company to do a one-hour interview with the new DevOps person we are hiring!”.

No, let’s not do that. Two or three stages should be sufficient. You have managers and directors for a reason. Trust your instinct and use your experience to make decisions on who will fit into your organization. Some of the most success-ful companies do one phone screen followed by an in-person meeting.

During the in-person interview, spend a morning or afternoon allowing the candidate to meet the relevant lead-ers and senior members of their direct team, then take them for lunch, dinner, or drinks where you can see how they are on a social level. If you can’t have a simple conversation with them, then you probably won’t enjoy working with them.

If the thumbs are up, make the hire and don’t wait around. A good candidate will usually have numerous offers on the table at the same time.If all goes well, you should be inviting your shiny new em-ployee or contractor into the office in the next few weeks, and hopefully many more throughout the year.This article was originally published on DevOps.com and republished with author permission

Methods more important than tools

Focus on their understanding of DevOps and CI/CD-related processes over specific tools. I believe the best approach is to find someone who understands the methodologies over the tools. Does your candidate understand the concept of continuous integration or the concept of continuous deliv-ery? That’s more important than asking whether your can-didate uses Jenkins versus Bamboo versus TeamCity and so on. Try not to get caught up in the exact tool chain. Fo-cus on the candidate’s ability to solve problems. Are they obsessed with increasing efficiency, saving time, automating manual processes, and constantly searching for flaws in the system? They might be the person you were looking for, but you missed them because you didn’t see the word “Puppet” on the resume

Happy hunting

If you like the sound of the above, you can read a lot more about it in detail in OpenSource.com’s white paper on the subject, which is also filled with similar tips for job-seekers. Which reminds me, Parenthesis: we’re still looking for a Business Development wizard to join our team. So, if you happen to be looking for such a role, then feel free to reach out to us.

]]>OpenStack Summit 2018: collaboration is everythinghttps://www.stackmasters.eu/blog/openstack-summit-2018-collaboration-is-everything/
Fri, 25 May 2018 13:12:30 +0000https://www.stackmasters.eu/?p=2557Spring is always a good time to visit Vancouver. But this week it’s extra special. Why? Because the OpenStack Summit 2018 is in town. This week I have been lucky enough to attend my 6th OpenStack Summit, this time happening in this great Canadian city. It’s remarkably beautiful, with plenty of nice parks, open spaces […]

Spring is always a good time to visit Vancouver. But this week it’s extra special. Why? Because the OpenStack Summit 2018 is in town.

This week I have been lucky enough to attend my 6th OpenStack Summit, this time happening in this great Canadian city. It’s remarkably beautiful, with plenty of nice parks, open spaces and one of the best waterfronts I’ve seen in a large city. Lots of places to take some time to breathe and reflect.

And it’s in one such oasis of calm where I’m writing this post from to share my experience and insights about where our industry seems to be going.

Actually my first experience of such a global event was in Atlanta, back in 2014, where I was accepted in the OpenStack travel support program. My eyes were well and truly opened on the project and its people. After that, a lot of traveling and learning has followed, in European cities like Paris and Barcelona, as well in Tokyo and Austin, with the former being the biggest technical IT conference I’ve ever participated in.

The keynote sessions where less noisy about how cool OpenStack can be this time round. The marketplace was also lacking the usual big marketing tricks to attract everyone’s interest. Nevertheless, it is still the biggest event in the Open Cloud Infrastructure and the ecosystem around it.

My personal take is that I prefer this kind of approach for such a high-end technical gathering. Why? It helps to promote the human communication paths, those connections which actually make things happen and continue to be the driving force for OpenStack.

OpenStack Defined Clouds

While the term OpenStack Defined Cloud is far from being in wide use, it’s my way of labeling everything I’ve seen over the last week. If I wanted to sketch out the outstanding role OpenStack plays in extending cloud to broad application coverage, I would stay it’s at the open source software contributed by the community.

However, the project itself and most significantly the key people in the community are evolving. In their expectations more than anything. They are actively looking forward and trying to enable more potential elements for everyone of interest in the cloud computing field.

Collaboration comes first

The new format of the OpenStack Summit splits out the sessions in various diverse tracks as mentioned above. This is a sign of maturity, which is the result of the actual exploitation of the project. OpenStack has a quite significant footprint in the IT industry. Many organizations are running their infrastructure on it and it services a diverse set of needs and verticals in the market.

Naturally, diversity calls for a segmentation in the focus according to the needs of the users. My main interest was around the Containers and the OpenDev CI/CD tracks. The place where the software lifecycle management is discussed, composing together with OpenStack’s extremely powerful tools to support the future of the digital economy. This would be the software infusion in our everyday life.

My take

So what’s the last word? I think, above all, the OpenStack Summit 2018 highlights how much the cloud has evolved. In both personality and actual use. Gone or the days or it being all about cloud glitz, glamour and coolness. As it matures, everything is now about being able to support a better software offering – for all of us.

For me, OpenStack embraces change, as it has the “Open” value in its DNA. And it responds to DevOps culture with invaluable results for the IT ecosystem.

]]>IT infrastructure monitoring – aka, watch your stack!https://www.stackmasters.eu/blog/it-infrastructure-monitoring/
Thu, 10 May 2018 08:48:33 +0000https://www.stackmasters.eu/?p=2546Spring is well and truly in the air. Which means? This is a great time to make sure you’re IT infrastructure monitoring is running smoothly. No, really it is! After all, unless you suffer from pollen allergies (in which case you are probably already fed up with Spring), you’ll be in the mood for some […]

Spring is well and truly in the air. Which means? This is a great time to make sure you’re IT infrastructure monitoring is running smoothly. No, really it is!

After all, unless you suffer from pollen allergies (in which case you are probably already fed up with Spring), you’ll be in the mood for some spring cleaning. But let’s face it, this is far too much work. That’s why we recommend you do a thorough check on your stack instead.

So without further ado, get to it. Don’t worry, if you’re not sure how, just follow these guidelines below.

IT infrastructure monitoring when being reactive

Monitoring is the standard tactic for operators to have an overview of all managed resources, get the utilization of systems usage and even report availability charts over on a monthly or annual basis.
This standard approach for IT infrastructure monitoring is very useful for achieving a basic reporting level for the operations of software and related systems. It all boils down to health checks on hosts and services.

Most, if not all of the time, this approach is combined with some sort of an alerting system to notify the stakeholders that things have gone south, or pear shaped, or awry. Or whatever euphemism you want to use for when things go bad.
It’s at this point in the story when, usually, those phone calls in the middle of the night go out to the right people so they can put out the fires.

While all the above still stand, there are proactive ways to make things easier, and to minimize such problematic cases.

Reporting, reporting, reporting

Yes, we can’t stress this aspect enough. Reporting is essential for any cloud service. On every level. And it should be as detailed as it gets.

Having access to detailed information means than you can analyze the trends and design actions based on key performance metrics. In the cloud world where everything is automated (and awesome), gaining access to IT infrastructure monitoring data can help with the following:

health checks and performance indicators

auto healing

auto scaling

accounting and billing

capacity planning

Making decisions or automating actions related to business continuity based on actual events and metrics of your own stack can really elevate the way you work. So, the moral of the story is start watching your stack more closely, and enhance all the related processes. This is a must when running your IT infrastructure monitoring on the cloud.

Being proactive means being prepared

Your IT infrastructure needs both constant monitoring and maintenance to stay in tip top shape. And this means real insights on how your software is performing.

As mentioned, this requires proactive actions, not reactive. At Stackmasters, we set up industry proven solutions for monitoring with Nagios and for log management with Elastic – Logstash – Kibana (ELK) so that you stay ahead of any issues in your IT environment.

The feedback we collect, means that we can review the overall system architecture, suggest changes to enable better availability, like data replication or load distribution, and as always give a strong focus on automation of software deployments and operations.

We even manage your operations end-to-end, significantly reducing the complexity and costs. Thus, allowing you to focus on the important issues – like growing your business, and being able to kick back and relax when you really need to. That’s what summer should be about.

Free consultation

From our entry level plan for new and emerging businesses, to our enterprise package catering to advanced customized needs, we’re sure you’ll find an appropriate and affordable plan for your business. We thrive on making sure your infrastructure is lean and mean so it can perform exactly how you want it to, with no nasty surprises.

We can help you lighten your team’s load and focus on the important stuff. Like freeing up your in-house developers to work on advancing your product line!

]]>Site reliability and why you should plan to fail in advancehttps://www.stackmasters.eu/blog/why-you-should-plan-to-fail-in-advance/
Thu, 12 Apr 2018 11:33:18 +0000https://www.stackmasters.eu/?p=2539“You have failed me for the last time.” If only Admiral Ozzel knew about site reliability engineering, aka SRE, and planning for failure, he may have been spared by Darth Vader. Now I’m not sure everybody’s favourite Sith Lord would go for breaking things on purposes. He prefers to keep things on schedule. But this […]

“You have failed me for the last time.” If only Admiral Ozzel knew about site reliability engineering, aka SRE, and planning for failure, he may have been spared by Darth Vader.

Now I’m not sure everybody’s favourite Sith Lord would go for breaking things on purposes. He prefers to keep things on schedule. But this is something you – as rebels – would do well to try to implement. In this way you make sure your IT is failure-proof.

You know the old adage, “fail to prepare, prepare to fail”? Well in the case of cloud computing you really need to start at the opposite end. Yes, I mean prepare to fail.

Site reliability engineering needs a failure plan

Did you know that the cloud is designed to allow failures? If not, then you have learned something already. But seriously it is. And that’s why you need to prepare a detailed plan to mitigate failure.

The great thing about cloud computing is that cloud infrastructure offers an efficient and responsive way to design for higher reliability. It’s this concept which provides the backbone to SRE.

SRE, as many of you might know, is of course the brainchild of Google’s Vice President of Engineering Ben Treynor. As its still a growing movement, even Treynor himself still hasn’t published a single-sentence definition.

In brief, site reliability engineering seeks to effectively end the age-old conflicts between Development and Operations. Fundamentally, it encourages product reliability, accountability, and innovation. But without the bickering. You can read all about it in the free, downloadable ebook written by members of Google’s SRE team. It’s highly recommended bedtime reading.

Break things, then fix them

A big part of making site reliability work for you is to help you plan for failure. HA patterns and/or DR plans can be prepared and put in action. You can even plant failure in your production site(s). This is a a popular way to check your reflexes and your plans for increased reliability.

Just break it (on purpose) and watch the impact. Make sure you record any issues and use this log to improve your plan for business continuity.

Don’t feel confident to break your production? Then simply clone a similar environment. Test, test, and test again. And prepare for the real deal – production!

Haven’t gone cloud yet?

If cool concepts like this, i.e. breaking things on purpose and site reliability engineering, can not convince you to make the move to the cloud, well we don’t know what will. Maybe a lifetime supply of M&M’s or lifetime cinema pass? In any case, what we will say is get in touch with us today for a free consultation and discuss how we can help your business plan for IT infrastructure failure – and much more.